[Genuine Realist]

My own thought is that all of the attributes of the country we value - its strong anti-authoritarian streak, its cultural and ethnic diversity (this is the most pluralistic nation in the world) - all go in dead reverse when we are faced with a phenomenon in which compliance with established authority and obedience to social dictates is required.

GR, you can keep writing this (as do I), but I don't think it's going to make a dent among the TDS/Orange Man Bad crowd who firmly believe that if only there were a different President, then Americans would be magically compliant, stop eating junk food, stop smoking, start working out, would lose weight, stop venerating the individual and start giving a damn about each other.  And the seas would recede.  Or so I'm told.

Heee, heeee
Mick, have you ever been to Australia?
Australians are at least as libertarian as Americans.   They have, let's just say, very questionable dietary traditions.   
And yet they are taking prudent government backed scientific steps on COVID (and climate change).
Seas won't recede for 50 years even if we get our act together now. 
COVID will be a major killer for at least the next 4 months.
Doesn't mean you shouldn't do the right things.
People will die in cars tomorrow doesn't mean the USA should just eliminate seat belt laws

With a government based on science we can alter the rate of acceleration of the problem(s).
That's all, I am looking for at this point.   

I don't need a POTUS to solve all problems, I just need a POTUS that doesn't actively make them worse.

For example, - CNN has done some research into Trump's recent MAGA rallies, and shocker, shocker they are highly correlated with rapid increases in COVID cases in those very counties just days later.

POTUS46, POTUS47 & POTUS48 likely won't solve a lot of the nation's problems, but I do expect a POTUS to not actively make problems worse.   Or at a minimum I don't expect them to know better paths and still select a path that is definitely worse for citizens but potentially better for himself....or herself.  ;) 

Very low bar that I never thought I would need to outline.   POTUS45 doesn't hit that bar.

Though I am encouraged by my OC world right now.   I have never seen so many ads and fliers that just say...he/she took a picture with Trump once in their life, therefore vote for the other candidate.   And in many cases that other candidate is leading in the polls...here in the OC.   

That's crazy, but then again that's Trump.

TDS takes the form of believing that all things Covid lead back to Trump, which is not the case. My own thought is that his actions since March have been irresponsible in the extreme. However, there have been various news accounts and opinions that some magic bullet existed in the December-January time frame that, if fired, might have spared us all this. The fact that no nation in the world seems to have found it doesn't seem to mean anything. 

There's also the American anti-exceptionalism that seems to have become the fashionable norm in upper class circles.. I mentioned this as an anthropological curiosity. (The curious phenomenon of how our most privileged and annointed citizens have emerged from elite institutions with undifferentiated contempt for the institutions that produced them, is one for future generations to resolve. In the meantime, they can continue to express their resentments on the Internet, the gift of the United States Department of Defense to the world.)

The result are assessments made much too glibly and quickly, and too often reflecting topical political sentiments.

[Genuine Realist]

My own thought is that all of the attributes of the country we value - its strong anti-authoritarian streak, its cultural and ethnic diversity (this is the most pluralistic nation in the world) - all go in dead reverse when we are faced with a phenomenon in which compliance with established authority and obedience to social dictates is required.

GR, you can keep writing this (as do I), but I don't think it's going to make a dent among the TDS/Orange Man Bad crowd who firmly believe that if only there were a different President, then Americans would be magically compliant, stop eating junk food, stop smoking, start working out, would lose weight, stop venerating the individual and start giving a damn about each other.  And the seas would recede.  Or so I'm told.

Heee, heeee
Mick, have you ever been to Australia?
Australians are at least as libertarian as Americans.   They have, let's just say, very questionable dietary traditions.   
And yet they are taking prudent government backed scientific steps on COVID (and climate change).
Seas won't recede for 50 years even if we get our act together now. 
COVID will be a major killer for at least the next 4 months.
Doesn't mean you shouldn't do the right things.
People will die in cars tomorrow doesn't mean the USA should just eliminate seat belt laws

With a government based on science we can alter the rate of acceleration of the problem(s).
That's all, I am looking for at this point.   

I don't need a POTUS to solve all problems, I just need a POTUS that doesn't actively make them worse.

For example, - CNN has done some research into Trump's recent MAGA rallies, and shocker, shocker they are highly correlated with rapid increases in COVID cases in those very counties just days later.

POTUS46, POTUS47 & POTUS48 likely won't solve a lot of the nation's problems, but I do expect a POTUS to not actively make problems worse.   Or at a minimum I don't expect them to know better paths and still select a path that is definitely worse for citizens but potentially better for himself....or herself.  ;) 

Very low bar that I never thought I would need to outline.   POTUS45 doesn't hit that bar.

Though I am encouraged by my OC world right now.   I have never seen so many ads and fliers that just say...he/she took a picture with Trump once in their life, therefore vote for the other candidate.   And in many cases that other candidate is leading in the polls...here in the OC.   

That's crazy, but then again that's Trump.

TDS takes the form of believing that all things Covid lead back to Trump, which is not the case. My own thought is that his actions since March have been irresponsible in the extreme. However, there have been various news accounts and opinions that some magic bullet existed in the December-January time frame that, if fired, might have spared us all this. The fact that no nation in the world seems to have found it doesn't seem to mean anything. 

There's also the American anti-exceptionalism that seems to have become the fashionable norm in upper class circles.. I mentioned this as an anthropological curiosity. (The curious phenomenon of how our most privileged and annointed citizens have emerged from elite institutions with undifferentiated contempt for the institutions that produced them, is one for future generations to resolve. In the meantime, they can continue to express their resentments on the Internet, the gift of the United States Department of Defense to the world.)

The result are assessments made much too glibly and quickly, and too often reflecting topical political sentiments.